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Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for a rocket attack late Sunday on villas housing American oil experts in Yemen's capital, a security source said Monday. "Al-Qaeda has claimed the attack on the villas in Sanaa and the security services have obtained a statement confirming this from one of Al-Qaeda's websites on the Internet," the source told AFP.

The firing on the villas, located next to a residential complex for other Westerners, occurred two days after the arrest in Sanaa of an Al-Qaeda activist, Abdullah Ghazi al-Raimi, according to the security source. Yemen said al-Raimi was "the most wanted al-Qaeda element," who escaped from a prison in 2006 along with 22 al-Qaeda affiliates, the state-run 26sep.net said.

Residents told AFP three rockets struck near the residences of US employees of the Yemen-owned Safer oil company, formerly known as Hunt Oil. There were no reports of casualties. The villas are located close to a residential compound in the Al-Hadda neighbourhood of southwestern Sanaa.

Al-Raimi has been convicted of carrying out terrorist attacks in Yemen during the last years, and was arrested after a more than two-year hunt.